The Weekend That Was #TWTW
Over the course of the weekend, I attended a Resume Building Workshop which was conducted by Rethink. Now, you may wonder why in the world a first year student is trying to build her resume. I hope you get the answer by the end of the article.
Pre-Workshop Video Call
Before the weekend, I had a one-on-one video call with Shilendra Soman, who was in charge of organising the program. The intent of the chat was to get to know me better; where I am studying, my ambitions, what I am expecting out of the program and what I would need help with in the future.
29th March, Friday
The video call started out at 7. The first task we were assigned was to review a a specific resume. And based on the resume, we had to fill in a Google sheet about what we liked in the resume and what we felt could have been better expressed. The several parameters we looked at were — The structure and order of the resume, Relevant experiences, Educational Qualifications, Typos and Gramatical Errors and whether sufficient contact information was provided. We had several grading options too like ‘Awesome’, ‘K’, ‘Hmmm Could be Better’, and finally ‘Not Cool Bro’.
The intent of this task was for us to identify errors which we might not notice while rechecking our own resume. Using this method, we can quickly spot the errors they have made and make sure we correct it in our own resumes.
The second task of the day was to make a ‘Laundry List’. The laundry list contain all the accomplishments you have achieved so far. No matter how irrelevant or how small you think the achievement is, it goes into the laundry list. You could think about each accomplishment one by one in the timeline they occured and add it to the list.
Once the Laundry List was made, we had to create a Google sheet for Resume Mapping. Shilendra showed us an example that day and asked us to do the same with our own Laundry Lists. We had to submit the Resume Mapping Sheet before the call the next day.
30th March, Saturday
Before the call, I had managed to complete the Resume Map. In the beginning of the call we could ask any doubts we had, which Shilendra and Arya Murali were happyto clear. After this, we had a fun activity where we had to Tweet to any dream company we wanted to work with.
The main task of the day was to choose any dream job we wanted and find the Job Description of the same. From the Job Description, we were to find the strong verbs which emphasised what the recruiter was looking for. Once we understood this, we could easily edit the resume from the Resume Mapping in a way the recruiter would be impressed.
The main purpose of the task was to make us understand that we needed to customise our resume, each time we were applying. That is, we need to highlight our skills and experiences in a way that the recruiter is looking for.
We were given a task to build up our resume for the particular job description we had chosen . The task was to be completed before the call the next day
31st March, Sunday
This was the last call of the program. We were free to ask any questions or doubts we had. Arya gave us a summary of the program . SKG emphasised the need to keep applying for jobs and internships, whehter we actually needed it or not. He told us that “The best time to actually look for a job is when you don’t need it.” and he emphasised the need of career building as opposed to just getting placed. Shilendra told us about his experiences while creating a resume too.
Now, one of the most important takeaways from the program for me was learning that I needed to utilise the next three years in such a way that I could fill in the gaps in my resume. I realised there are several areas I need to work on and make genuine progress in those fields. This program was a reminder that I need to make a sincere effort to develop my skills and work on multiple projects and teams in the years to come. Hopefully, at a time when I actually need my resume to apply for that dream job, I would have filled in all those gaps I faced now.
